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The French government Is Open to Helping British marines If Landing Fleet Is Scrapped

Military chiefs from the French armed forces said that they are willing to offer greater access to the Royal Marines to some of their warships. This was on condition that the UK’s cabinets decides to scrap their amphibious landing fleet which is aimed at assisting to plug a £20bn black hole worth of funding.

The French government is willing to hold discussions on plans to give special access to Britain’s commando unit and run deployments jointly from their fleet of three Mistral Class Amphibious assault ships. This was according to a report released by two senior officials in the French military. One of the military chiefs said that France had three assault ships that are very capable. The official said that the two countries would stand shoulder to shoulder to mitigate the effect where one of the countries had to cut down on their fleet due to budgetary constraints.

Still, at the very early stages, the move has not been presented to the British Navy leadership or the overall military commanders in London. This comes as the British government is in the final stages of sweeping defense and security reviews. One of the possible scenarios that can be put into consideration by UK’s officials in the department of defense is scrapping the two amphibious assault ships, HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark.
The scrapping of this deployment will also mean that more than 1000 Royal Marines will have to be reposted to other military bases. If the demands by the French military are met, the French would step in and ensure that Britain’s rapid response unit that is highly regarded can continue its training exercises. These expeditionary training exercises by the unit are an essential aspect of ensuring that the force can deploy at a moment’s notice whenever required.

Another French government official said that the idea was part of the French and Britain’s joint expeditionary force which is a product of the Lancaster House treaty signed by top government officials of the two nations. The official said that the idea was part of CJEF and that training exercises were already ongoing. Britain has to create close ties for joint military collaboration with the French armed forces because they decommissioned their last aircraft carrier seven years ago in 2010. However, the UK has invested heavily in its royal navy investing to a tune of £6.1bn on two aircraft carriers with one of them being commissioned this coming Thursday.